Last month I wrote about how you can get free and easy rental car elite status if you have a World Elite MasterCard.
Plenty of readers have one of these, for instance if you signed up for the Citi American Airlines Executive Card when it was offering 100,000 bonus miles.
johnf pointed out though that there are links available with both Avis and National that let you sign up and receive elite status instantly.
Avis has their MasterCard World Elite signup offer online. This gives you instant Avis First status. You’ll have to enter a MasterCard as your credit card of choice.
National Car Rental makes their signup link available as well. Which means most should be able to use it.
Years ago you used to be able to sign up for Avis Presidents Club status online. It was a benefit of the Continental Presidental Plus World MasterCard. But anyone could use it. Some people found that Avis eventually checked accounts against a cardholder list and downgraded those that didn’t have the card, others simply kept the status.
Interestingly the link that I posted in 2007 is still live. I haven’t tried to see if it still works. I’d be suprised if it does, at least for long (the 10 days they say it could take to upgrade your account status may involve a process of verifying you’re eligible, so you may not wind up with status this way).
Avis may be about to revamp its loyalty program in any case, so unclear how Avis status now will translate.
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How does Avis First compare to Avis Preferred – what Amex Plat card gives you?
The 2007 link for Avis Presidents Club status is copyright 2014 and offers the status for United Mileage Plus cardholders. I don’t have the United card but have the American Executive card. Do you think the AA card will get Presidents Club status?
Hey Gary,do you know if you can use the benefits of the respective status if you don’t book at the company website. Their rates are outrageous compared to a car booked on Ultimate rewards. 1 day rate in SFO for a mini van cost $250 compared to $70 on UR.
@RL as long as it isn’t a prepaid rate via another site, and you can add your membership # in, then it should be fine. So you can’t really use the benefits with a Hotwire booking. But you can with an Orbitz booking.
Can we do a status match / update of our record if we have an existing account with National or do we have to create an entirely new account?
I’m going to sign up for the Avis one, but I don’t have a World Elite Mastercard. I do have “regular” Mastercards. Will I still be able to sign up for this?
Is the National status for Emerald Executive or just Emerald Club? I have the basic membership – and the website said Executive only in one place! Just curious if anybody knows.
Received my Emerald Executive membership today by email. Thanks for the tip.
The link to national doesn’t work.. Just a FYI
Thanks Gary and johnf. I was upgraded to AVIS First (already had National Executive Elite for some reason).
This might be known to others but I wasn’t initially aware that signing up for Avis First includes a free weekend rental simply for signing up! I wrote about my experience getting the code and using it.
http://pointscentric.com/2014/08/21/free-two-day-weekend-car-rental-from-avis-with-avis-first/
How do I get National Executive if I already have National Emerald?
It appears to be only for new signups?
https://www.nationalcar.com/index.do?action=corpEnroll.do&contractId=5030261&createLogin=Y&ecBenefit=Y&ecSecurityInfo=Y&emailAgent=Y&enrollmentType=0&faqs=Y&footer=1&header=1&howtoByPass=Y&resConf=Y&resLink=Y&securityConf=Y&signUp=Y&source=blank.gif&sourceCode=2090&welcomeText=Welcome%20to%20Emerald%20Club%20Executive!
Already a Avis Preferred. When choosing the “Already have Preferred Service? Click here and provide your Name and Avis Wizard number and you will be upgraded to AVIS FIRST within 24 hours, subject to verification.” The link is not working…Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
I was a member already so I signed up on the bottom of the page and was upgraded and actually I just yesturday got a Lincoln because of this
But my email didn’t mention anything about free days on it
Is it maybe only for new members?
Did anybody get it even.as a old member?
clicking the national link takes you to a page to sign up for emerald status. Does it get you executive status even though the splash/loading screen says emerald?